Monthly Archives: January 2015

Weber Grills had a fabulous commercial written up in Forbes magazine years ago. Ironically, they took it off the air because PETA-types complained. I’m not sure why they cared what the animal rights activists thought, as those folks aren’t exactly your target market for barbecue grills. Does C. Montgomery Burns seek advice from the Amish on how to run his nuclear power plant?.

The commercial had several serene scenes of sheep, pigs and cows with a peaceful voice-over noting pleasant things about each animal. The last scene just showed a Weber grill. The tag-line? Farm animals: Let’s eat ‘em!

Here’s a more recent example from McDonald’s. I think a key success factor in life is eating there as little as possible, but I don’t think we need the government fixing their menu. Via Is the Left slowly killing off McDonald’s?

The whole point here is that McDonald’s is never going to succeed if they think they need to deliver the same level of food which you get at a high end restaurant and do so at drive through prices, and they certainly are not going to prosper if they feel like they have to tailor their menu to a bunch of vegans in the hopes of shutting up Michelle Obama and the talking heads on MSNBC. Those people aren’t buying their food anyway… they just want to see them go out of business. McDonald’s needs to get back to their roots, put the beef tallow back in the fries and tell the vegans to go eat their celery sticks quietly in the dark.

And of course, this lesson is even more important in churches. The “Christian” Leftists don’t love Jesus. They deny his deity and exclusivity for salvation, they mock his word and so much more. They are like the vegetarians telling you how you must cook your beef. So why have authentic Christians tried for years to accommodate them? Just preach the word and don’t let the wolves take leadership positions.

When the “Christian” Left goes along with the anti-human “climate change” Leftist political power grab and the anti-God / anti-science nonsense of Darwinian evolution, they typically point out how many scientists agree with them. This deliberately ignores the financial and peer pressures that scientists have no immunity to. History couldn’t be more clear: If you risk your career and reputation for opposing the party line, you are more likely to “believe” the mainstream view.

But it gets worse: The “Christian” Left ignores when scientists are in vast agreement on a host of other issues, including those that are far less controversial and unlikely to be influenced by politics. Exhibit A: The “Christian” Left insists that Jesus supports killing unwanted children up to their first breath* even though mainstream embryology texts (and common sense) say that a new human being is created at fertilization. I’m too pro-science to be pro-choice.

Apparently 65% of the scientists surveyed think that building more nuclear power plants is a good idea. That compared to only 45% of the non-scientist American public.

The reasons behind the scientific communities pro-nuclear power attitudes are not explained in the Pew study. But, given the years that the environmental moment and the entertainment industry have spent attempting to convince the American public that nuclear power is a threat to humanity and not a positive way of improving Americas energy independence, it might give them pause to know that such a big majority of scientists seem to have no problem with expanding the sources of nuclear power in the United States.

Large majorities of the scientists surveyed also believed that it was safe to eat genetically modified foods (88%) and and favor the use of animals in research (89%), unlike the general public.

Rampant smuggling — and its related ugliness — can be thwarted to a degree by cutting taxes, improving law enforcement operations, or both. We strongly suggest the former route. Higher excise taxes are the root of the problem so lower ones should be at the forefront of a solution.

Enough data has been collected by this point that we can construct a sort of Laffer Curve for the willingness of people to break the law and purchase black market cigarettes based on the tax rate. At a very low tax rate (close to other similarly base priced products) virtually no one is going to risk an encounter with the law to save a few cents and smuggling is not profitable. (And therefore doesn’t happen in measurable amounts.) And, of course, the revenue the state takes in is lower. But you can only increase the tax rate a certain amount before an increasing number of people are willing to take the risk and buy off the black market. By the time you jack up the taxes as high as New York has gone, more than half the cigarettes consumed are black market, you’re on the far side of the bell curve and the state is actually making less money than they would at a lower rate.

Meanwhile, more and more law enforcement resources have to be deployed to fight this “crime wave” rather than dealing with more serious social ills. This is self destructive behavior on the part of these tax happy states and it needs to be curbed.

They pretend to care so they can keep getting their votes, but their actions betray them. First, they are pro-abortion extremists who support all the policies that result in blacks being killed at a rate three times that of whites. Then it gets worse: They support the Democrats’ platform of taxpayer-funded abortions which will increase that rate.

And they support illegal immigration that takes the jobs and lowers the wages of existing jobs for low-income blacks. Check out how many illegals are in these jobs!

If the “Christian” Left really cared about black people they’d oppose abortion and illegal immigration.

One of the sad things about the people who grew up saturated with Leftist education, politics, media and entertainment is how they go into full freak-out mode when confronted with opposing views. They have no idea how to critically examine them, so they panic and just start calling names.

Exhibit A: Their irrational hatred and dismissal of Fox News (“Faux News!!!!”). After all, if they can think of a clever name to call their ideological foe then they must be right.

I don’t watch or read Fox (or Limbaugh, etc.). Not that there’s anything wrong with that! But it is amusing how many Leftists assume that is my only source of news and how they think they can just dismiss our views with the genetic fallacy (discrediting a claim solely based on its source).

But it gets worse: Fox isn’t that biased, especially compared to outlets like MSNBC that the Leftists consume as pure gospel.

“If viewers spent an equal amount of time watching Fox’s ‘Special Report’ as ABC’s ‘World News’ and NBC’s ‘Nightly News,’ then they would receive a nearly perfectly balanced version of the news,” said Milyo, an associate professor of economics and public affairs at the University of Missouri at Columbia.”

If you look at giving patterns of the media, they are hopelessly biased to the Left and far more extreme than the average viewer.

Here’s an effective way to deal with those on the Left, who rarely, if ever, consume conservative media: Just note that you consume plenty of both sides and then form opinions, then ask how much conservative media they consume. [Crickets chirping] Then say that while that doesn’t necessarily mean you are always correct, it does mean you have examined both sides more thoroughly than they have. Hopefully they’ll realize they aren’t as fully informed as they thought.

Bonus: Also point out that if they read some of what we do — even if they didn’t agree with it — they’d notice that unlike the Left, we regularly criticize Republicans and Christians. Examples: The Left has no idea how much conservatives disliked Bush’s spending programs or how much Bible-believing Christians criticized Mark Driscoll. Yet the Left only criticizes Obama on the most extreme things, and then quickly changes the subject as to why it is really the fault of Republicans.

It is unwise in the extreme to listen to the “Christian” Left that mocks the word of God while claiming to be getting new and accurate messages from him (such as the “God is still speaking;” slogan of the apostate United Church of Christ).

Have you read 1 Kings 13 lately (see below), where a “man of God” initially obeyed a direct command from God but then believed a prophet who falsely claimed that God told him something different? It didn’t end well. And by “didn’t end well,” I mean he got killed by a lion.

Now am I saying that if you listen to false teachers about what God “really” says rather than the Bible that you’ll get killed by a lion? Of course not. You probably live in North America, so God will use a bear instead of a lion.

Just kidding! Probably! While God often uses examples in the Bible to show how serious sins are, such as with Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5, by his grace and mercy He doesn’t give us all what we deserve. But that doesn’t mean we should confuse his patience with his approval.

We are commanded to love God with our minds and we should use good discernment when listening to people make claims about God, regardless of their titles or reputation. Remember to be like good Bereans and test everything in light of scripture (Acts 17:11 Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.). But how can you do that if you aren’t reading the Bible regularly?

If people claim to have heard from God then the burden of proof is on them to back it up. If they are teaching things that disagree with the Bible (e.g., Jesus isn’t the only way to salvation, we don’t know what God really said in the Bible, pro-abortion, pro-“same-sex marriage,” etc.) then they should be ignored. If they hold those views and say that God spoke to them then they are lying, just like the old prophet in 1 Kings 13. False teachers are deadly — not always physically, but certainly spiritually.

Read the Bible, then read it some more. Every day. Then you’ll be much more likely to spot the false teachers.

One of the reasons to go through the Old Testament is that otherwise you’ll miss great stories like this!

1 Kings 13 (ESV)

A Man of God Confronts Jeroboam

13 And behold, a man of God came out of Judah by the word of the Lord to Bethel. Jeroboam was standing by the altar to make offerings. 2 And the man cried against the altar by the word of the Lord and said, “O altar, altar, thus says the Lord: ‘Behold, a son shall be born to the house of David, Josiah by name, and he shall sacrifice on you the priests of the high places who make offerings on you, and human bones shall be burned on you.’ ” 3 And he gave a sign the same day, saying, “This is the sign that the Lord has spoken: ‘Behold, the altar shall be torn down, and the ashes that are on it shall be poured out.’ ” 4 And when the king heard the saying of the man of God, which he cried against the altar at Bethel, Jeroboam stretched out his hand from the altar, saying, “Seize him.” And his hand, which he stretched out against him, dried up, so that he could not draw it back to himself. 5 The altar also was torn down, and the ashes poured out from the altar, according to the sign that the man of God had given by the word of the Lord. 6 And the king said to the man of God, “Entreat now the favor of the Lord your God, and pray for me, that my hand may be restored to me.” And the man of God entreated the Lord, and the king’s hand was restored to him and became as it was before. 7 And the king said to the man of God, “Come home with me, and refresh yourself, and I will give you a reward.” 8 And the man of God said to the king, “If you give me half your house, I will not go in with you. And I will not eat bread or drink water in this place, 9 for so was it commanded me by the word of the Lord, saying, ‘You shall neither eat bread nor drink water nor return by the way that you came.’ ” 10 So he went another way and did not return by the way that he came to Bethel.

The Prophet’s Disobedience

11 Now an old prophet lived in Bethel. And his sons came and told him all that the man of God had done that day in Bethel. They also told to their father the words that he had spoken to the king. 12 And their father said to them, “Which way did he go?” And his sons showed him the way that the man of God who came from Judah had gone. 13 And he said to his sons, “Saddle the donkey for me.” So they saddled the donkey for him and he mounted it. 14 And he went after the man of God and found him sitting under an oak. And he said to him, “Are you the man of God who came from Judah?” And he said, “I am.” 15 Then he said to him, “Come home with me and eat bread.” 16 And he said, “I may not return with you, or go in with you, neither will I eat bread nor drink water with you in this place, 17 for it was said to me by the word of the Lord, ‘You shall neither eat bread nor drink water there, nor return by the way that you came.’ ” 18 And he said to him, “I also am a prophet as you are, and an angel spoke to me by the word of the Lord, saying, ‘Bring him back with you into your house that he may eat bread and drink water.’ ” But he lied to him. 19 So he went back with him and ate bread in his house and drank water.

20 And as they sat at the table, the word of the Lord came to the prophet who had brought him back. 21 And he cried to the man of God who came from Judah, “Thus says the Lord, ‘Because you have disobeyed the word of the Lord and have not kept the command that the Lord your God commanded you, 22 but have come back and have eaten bread and drunk water in the place of which he said to you, “Eat no bread and drink no water,” your body shall not come to the tomb of your fathers.’ ” 23 And after he had eaten bread and drunk, he saddled the donkey for the prophet whom he had brought back. 24 And as he went away a lion met him on the road and killed him. And his body was thrown in the road, and the donkey stood beside it; the lion also stood beside the body. 25 And behold, men passed by and saw the body thrown in the road and the lion standing by the body. And they came and told it in the city where the old prophet lived.

26 And when the prophet who had brought him back from the way heard of it, he said, “It is the man of God who disobeyed the word of the Lord; therefore the Lord has given him to the lion, which has torn him and killed him, according to the word that the Lord spoke to him.” 27 And he said to his sons, “Saddle the donkey for me.” And they saddled it. 28 And he went and found his body thrown in the road, and the donkey and the lion standing beside the body. The lion had not eaten the body or torn the donkey. 29 And the prophet took up the body of the man of God and laid it on the donkey and brought it back to the city to mourn and to bury him. 30 And he laid the body in his own grave. And they mourned over him, saying, “Alas, my brother!” 31 And after he had buried him, he said to his sons, “When I die, bury me in the grave in which the man of God is buried; lay my bones beside his bones. 32 For the saying that he called out by the word of the Lord against the altar in Bethel and against all the houses of the high places that are in the cities of Samaria shall surely come to pass.”

33 After this thing Jeroboam did not turn from his evil way, but made priests for the high places again from among all the people. Any who would, he ordained to be priests of the high places. 34 And this thing became sin to the house of Jeroboam, so as to cut it off and to destroy it from the face of the earth.